TOKYO”•Japan’s economy barely grew in the April-June quarter, revised data showed Thursday, supplying the latest failing report card for the prime minister’s policy blitz.
Growth in the world’s third-largest economy came in at 0.2 percent on-quarter, slightly better than a 0.0 percent preliminary estimate last month, as weak exports dented activity.
On an annualized basis, the economy expanded a revised 0.7 percent, compared with a slight 0.2 percent expansion in the preliminary data.
That is still off a 2.1 percent annualized growth rate seen in the first quarter of the year.
Japanese officials are under pressure to deliver as economists increasingly write off Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s years-long bid to cement a lasting recovery, dubbed Abenomics.
The Tokyo stock market opened lower shortly after the announcement of the revised data, with the benchmark Nikkei index falling 0.18 percent in the first minutes of trade.
The dollar, meanwhile, was trading at 101.80 yen in early Tokyo trade compared with 101.73 yen in New York late Wednesday.
The weak growth figures will heap pressure on the Bank of Japan for more action when it meets later this month.
Tokyo recently announced a whopping 28 trillion yen ($275 billion) package aimed at kick-starting growth, after Britain’s June vote to quit the European Union sent financial markets into a tailspin and sparked a rally in the yen.
